


Mihris Virnehn, Solas and “flat-ear”

by Ellanor



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: DA meta, Dragon Age Meta, Essay, da essay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26011846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellanor/pseuds/Ellanor
Summary: A short essay regarding my thoughts on Mihris Virnehn and Solas.





	Mihris Virnehn, Solas and “flat-ear”

We’ve all been there (well all who played the game or watched a let’s play) and we’ve all heard the dialogue between an unknown dalish girl named Mihris and Solas in the quest "Measuring the Veil": “You, flat-ear, can you manage it?” and I’m sure a part of you thought “Who is this nobody who calls my precious egg flat-ear? Ugh, I’m so salty about anyone who wounds the pride of my egg.” then proceeded to take her amulet and kill her. (For a level 3 squad up against a lvl 16 as Mihris is? Bad idea.) But you’ve killed her, took her prize and the pride of the egg is avenged. You can continue onward saving the world.

Let’s take a moment and think about the setting (and consider the fact that the quest takes place before the attack on Haven) The Hinterlands: a remote corner close to the dragon valley. You, Herald and your squad formed out of Cassandra, Solas and Varric stumble upon a lone dalish girl fighting a demon. You hop in and help her finish the fight and then she greets you.

Let’s take a closer look to how different her dialogue is depending on whether you play as a Lavellan or not.

  * To Lavellan: “What took you away from your clan?” “They were all killed… by a demon that our Keeper was foolish enough to summon. I am the only survivor of clan Virnehn. I was searching for another clan that would take me in when the Breach appeared. Now I’m doing whatever I can to help with this madness.” to which Solas doesn’t say a thing.
  * To other races: “How did you come to be here?” “I was - am - first of clan Virnehn! I left in service of my clan and saw that great tear in the veil on my journey. I know more of magic and the Veil than any shemlen, so I hoped to help.” to which Solas replies “Ma harel, da’len.” (You lie, little one) thus antagonizing her. (In her point of view and after what happened to her, yes she knew a lot about magic and some things about the Veil. But how was she supposed to guess that the one who helped open the breach in the first place was talking to her?)



From this the quest moves on to that wall of rocks and to her basically saying “well fudge you too” to Solas. (The flat-ear comment) From the very start you can see her defensive attitude and that she lies to a non-elf inquisitor. After all why would she tell you, a complete stranger, her life story? Which might that be you wonder? Those that had read the Masked Empire, will know what I'm talking about.

Clan Virnehn had to deal suddenly with the group formed out of Celene, Briala, Felassan and Michel coming out of nowhere in their camp and enraging the sylvans that were in that forest (thus endangering the clan). Mihris heals Celene who was gravely wounded. The keeper leaves Briala (a city-elf) and Felassan to roam free through the camp and bind Michel to a tree (and frankly why shouldn’t they? He is a dangerous human chevalier who is trained enough to kill a good part of them) Then after Celene is healed, their Keeper Thelhen starts to barter with Celene for their release. Celene treats them with superiority and says something among the lines of “But I’m the Empress of Orlais. I can grant you whatever you want. You’d be foolish not to accept.” And the Keeper rightfully dismisses her with “But how do I know that once we’ve helped you, you’ll help us in turn? You humans always take back your word.” This whole exchange ends with a big surprise.

Weeks prior Thelhen together with Mihris summoned a powerful demon. They wanted the demon to give them the secrets of the eluvians, as they were trying to reclaim their history like any dalish clan would. But the demon tricked Michel into releasing it and killed clan Virnehn. (Michel also killed 6 members along with Mihris’ beloved.) Mihris sought revenge and allowed herself to be possessed by the demon in order to kill Michel, but it all backfired and Felassan convinced the demon to leave her.

Que 3 years later (or 1, the timelines aren’t clear). Mihris was forced to live 3 years on her own, with the memory that the demon and chevalier who killed her clan live and that she is the only survivor. She was forced to cross the Frostback Mountains in full winter in order to arrive in Ferelden, in the Hinterlands at the time she did (thus almost freezing to death) and she was all alone, without a clan to care for her. On her own she found information about the artifact to strengthen the veil and on her own she almost completed the mission. Can you blame her for not telling a complete stranger the story of her clan being killed? Can you blame her that she uses a term that she is used to out of reflex?

We’ve been told in Origins what city and dalish elves think of each other. City elves think the dalish are savage and that they make blood sacrifices and steal children. The Dalish think city elves are not elves anymore, but only human toys. This misunderstanding was born out of the fact that the two DO NOT interact enough. We’ve seen in DA2: how courteous the Kirkwall elves were to Marethari when she came in the alienage to help Feynriel. We saw how Zathrian took Lanaya in his clan without question and made her his First. We saw how clan Sabrae accepted Pool and made him one of its hunters. If both city and dalish would interact with eachother more, there would be a lot of positives coming out of it. This is Bioware’s way of making you hate elves and thinking they deserve their fate, which they do not. They do not deserve being killed and being slaves over the fact that they got their history wrong. Ha ha the dalish are so stupid, let’s kill a clan in each game - Zathrian’s, Sabrae, Virnehn and Lavellan) In 3 games we are barely shown positive interactions among elves in the first place! And I’m talking about popular ones (and not pc-npc. I mean npc-npc) Fenris and Merrill in DA2, Sera and Solas in Inquisition, Mihris and Briala in the Masked Empire

Why flat-ear? Let me remind you again that Mihris recently suffered trauma, her entire family was killed. She was left on her own. And it did not end well. She was abandoned in the Dales by Briala and Felassan and left to her own fate. Can you hate on her that among Celene, Michel, Imshael and Gaspard, she also blames Briala a bit for the fate of her family? I hate how their relationship was written. They are both elves, they are both survivors and they should have bonded dammit! Bet you wouldn’t have thought there was so much story in such an insignificant character! What’s done is done. She called Solas flat ear, the pride of the precious egg is insulted. What to do now?

I tell you what to do. Help her. Help her clear the ruin, activate the artifact and when she tells you about the amulet, just leave. Let her have the amulet, let her rejoice over this insignificant victory in her bitter life. Forget what she told to Solas, because Solas later for whom “Dalish are stupid and modern elves don’t deserve to be saved” would have long forgotten. Read the Masked Empire and make positive posts about her and Briala. Inform yourself before making negative posts about them. They have suffered enough. Inquisition tries to defend Celene, Gaspard and Michel by not telling YOU, the player, about what truly happened. About what they have done. Not telling you their point of view. Help Mihris, side with Briala. Support positive interactions among elves. And hope for the best concerning them in DA4.


End file.
